This blog is dedicated to bringing World War II era tank archives to a wider audience, by translating them into English if necessary and providing some historical context to those unfamiliar with it.
Questions? Requests? Comments? Email me at tankarchives@gmail.com or find me on Twitter @Tank_Archives.

Thursday, 8 December 2016

Despite the stereotypes of poor Russian organization, major components of a tank (the gun, the radio, the engine, etc) all came with a technical passport that contained the data for the item in general and this specific item in particular. Here is a technical passport for a F-32 gun installed in a KV tank.

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

Since the T-34 was clearly not going to stick around on the assembly line for long, the future of the AT-45 tractor on its chassis was bleak. With the T-44 cemented as its successor, it only made sense to design a tractor on that chassis.

Monday, 5 December 2016

The saturation of a tank division with anti-tank weapons grants protection for tanks that move forward. As experience shows, the enemy uses T-34 in increasing amounts. As the 88 mm gun is suitable for combat against this type of tank, the combat group artillery commander can attach one or two 88 mm guns with a 20 mm gun each.If two 88 mm guns fire at ground targets, they must be subordinate to a heavy AA gun battery, as two guns cannot fire at air targets, even with a targeting device,Attaching an entire AA gun battery to fight tanks proved ineffective. Guns dedicated to anti-tank defense weaken anti-air defense.

Sunday, 4 December 2016

During WWII, the German army became the leader in the amount of SPGs produced. The most numerous armoured vehicle in the German army was not a tank, but an SPGs. The Germans were also the first to use self propelled gun mounts. These SPGs were, as a rule, made from obsolete tank chassis, usually light tanks. However, the Germans had a custom built self propelled gun mount, not converted from an already existing tank, but built from scratch. This unusual vehicle is known as the Dicker Max.

Friday, 2 December 2016

In the middle of November of 1943, the Germans tried to take Kiev, recently liberated by the Red Army. A powerful strike force struck at Soviet forces in two directions on November 15th, 1943: west of Fastov and south of Zhitomir.

Among others, the 1st SS Tank Division "Leibstandarte" attacked towards the Zhitomir direction. This division included 96 Panther and PzIV tanks and 27 Tigers. The division was tasked with capturing Brusilov. The Germans circled around it and prepared for an offensive from the east. The village of Yastrebenka lay between Leibstandarte and Brusilov, and the Germans had to take it first.

Thursday, 1 December 2016

During the Orel operation, it was discovered that the creation of fake minefields in the main directions of the battle has significant results. Therefore, their creation is necessary. Consider the following points:

Fake minefields prevent the enemy's breakthrough of the first line of defense and hinder his progress.

It is necessary to create fake anti-tank and anti-infantry minefields.

These minefields must go on until anti-tank trenches.

Fake minefields consist of a region surrounded by wire with signs that read "Danger: Mines".

Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Based on my observations, I came to the conclusion that a significant portion of soldiers do not understand the difficulties that we unavoidably encounter on the fifth year of this war that are caused by the situation with raw materials, production, and supplies. The following are only a few examples of violations that keep repeating, despite numerous directions on this issue:

Soviet live fire experiments with HESH fired from a 105 mm tank gun and a 106 mm recoilless rifle were published in the Armoured Journal (Bronetankoviy Vestnik) as a part of a study on tank protection. In this study, various types of armour layouts were simulated by placing thin 2P steel or aluminium alloy plates of various types, representing skirt armour, at a distance of 330 mm away from a thicker 2P steel plate, representing the side of the tank's hull. The shots were fired from 100 meters. Here are the results.

Caliber (mm)

Angle

(deg)

Impact velocity

(m/s)

Armour
thickness (mm)

Damage

Normaliza-tion angle of fragments

First
plate

Second
plate

105

0

634

5+20 (Steel)

Breach 650x400 mm

Breach 240x300 mm*

0

105

0

615

5+80 (Steel)

Breach 500x550 mm

Dents from fragments up to 12 mm deep
over 350x400 mm

0

105

0

605

5+20 (Steel)

Breach 650x480 mm

Dents from fragments 10-12 mm deep over
500x550 mm

0

105

0

614

10+20(Steel)

Breach 600x600 mm

Plate cracked, two penetrations, dents
from fragments over

0

105

0

722

10+20(Steel)

Breach 500x400 mm

Three penetrations, dents from
fragments over 350x370 mm.

0

105

0

617

10+30(Steel)

Breach 550x600 mm

Dents up to 7 mm deep over 370x400 mm.

0

105

0

607

30 (ABT-101) + 20 (Steel)

Plate cracked

Dents up to 8 mm deep over 450x400 mm,
706 mm long crack.

0

105

0

615

5 (AMG-6) + 80 (Steel at a 60 deg
angle)

Penetration 170x110 mm

Plate cracked**

-

105

45

606

5+20 (Steel)

Breach 780x350 mm

Plate cracked. Dents from fragments up
to 10 mm deep over 550x500 mm

15-25

105

50

606

5+20(Steel)

Breach 650x290 mm

Plate cracked. Dents up to 11 mm deep
over 550x500 mm

20-25

105

60

640

5+20(Steel)

Breach 550x340 mm

Dents up to 13 mm deep over 500x620
mm.

20-30

105

60

635

10+20(Steel)

Plate cracked

40x40 mm penetration, dents from
fragments over 350x500 mm.

-

105

60

599

13(ABT-101) + 20 (Steel)

Breach 500x480 mm

Dents up to 100 [sic] mm deep over
500x490 mm.

20-30

105

0

489

5+45(Steel)

Breach 620x480 mm

Dents up to 5 mm deep over 600x560 mm.

0

106

60

489

10+20(Steel)

Plate cracked

Breach 310x170 mm, dents from
fragments over 430x400 mm.

35-40

106

60

489

20+45(Steel)

Breach 800x550 mm with spall fragment

Dents up to 15 mm deep from fragments
over 360x380. 20 mm dent from spall fragment.

30-40

*The shell did not explode upon striking the first layer,
but deformed slightly.

**The shell penetrated the spaced armour and exploded upon
hitting the main armour.

Monday, 28 November 2016

Fire walls and bottle fields are used in anti-tank and anti-personnel engineering obstruction systems. Their purpose is to delay the advance of tanks and infantry and upset the enemy's fighting order to guarantee success for our counterattacks.

Fire obstructions are built on tank-accessible directions and are echeloned in depth, covered by rifle/machinegun and artillery/mortar fire from defending units.

Tank destroyer groups are located close to the fire obstructions, completing the destruction of enemy tanks when they are forced to stop.

Saturday, 26 November 2016

On July 20th, 1941, the Red Army adopted the T-60 small tank into service. This was a necessary measure, as incredible losses of tanks in the first month of the Great Patriotic War had to be replenished, and mass production of the T-50 wasn't getting off the ground. Even if the goal of producing 10,000 tanks in 1941 was not met, large amounts of T-60 tanks entered service in October, playing an important part in the defeat of the Germans at Moscow. At the same time, an idea to modernize the T-60 was tossed around as early August, resulting in a heavier tank that was indexed T-70. What is the history of this tank?